She'll have a pension, Social Security and a 401(k) when she retires from the Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, where she's program manager for community and multicultural relations, a job that relates to the Mexican side of her family.

She expects her retirement income will cover the basics but wants money to travel and do things with her family. She knows her financial situation is better than most working single women, but she still worries. When she divorced, she took the middle-of-the-road approach to investing: neither conservative nor risky. Back then, retirement was 20 years away. Now she wonders if she should take a second look at her investments. Are they enough?

"It's time for me to start taking care of myself financially," she says.

She'd like to have a clearer plan, especially for investing the proceeds of her 401(k) account after she retires. "Should I manage it all myself?"

Expert Advice

Pablo Bianchi says Mary must overcome the inertia of her situation and actively develop a retirement plan — starting now. She should begin by tweaking the investment plan she set up a decade ago.

"The last thing you want to do is to wake up at age 78, running out of assets and needing to go back to work," Bianchi says. "Financial planning is not something you do once and forget."

He suggests she pull together her sources of retirement income and estimate the money she'll have and how much she'll need. If there's a shortfall, she has to make some tough choices now, Bianchi says: Get on a tight budget; take on some investments that potentially will produce higher returns, knowing that they will add risk to your portfolio; retire later or plan on working part-time when she's older.

He suggests she interview two or three certified financial planners. Find a planner who will listen to what she wants to do in her later years, and care about helping her. But, he says, "Run away if someone starts talking about doing transactions right away." Hire someone to set up your plan — not to sell you products.

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